


Best

by CadetDru



Series: Before [2]
Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Imprinting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 16:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/689216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadetDru/pseuds/CadetDru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whiskey's first few imprints were difficult for Topher.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best

It tore him apart the first half dozen times he went through the script with Claire, Whiskey. Her name was Whiskey. She wasn't Claire any more, not for a while still. She only knew him as the man with the chair.

She would go out as someone else, some happy girl to make someone else happy too. Sometimes she was a sad girl to be cheered up. The details only mattered for the duration of each engagement. Then she came back to this room, cheerful Whiskey in her little organic cotton clothes. The chair went down, the chair came back up. 

"Did I fall asleep?" Whiskey asked.

"For a little while," Topher said.

"Shall I go now?" she asked with that dopey little smile they all had. 

"If you like," he said. It took about ten times until he hoped she would stay, hope she would remember him somehow. She couldn't stay around him. They weren't friends. He didn't have friends any more.

He kept his promise; they had beer on his birthday. He couldn't risk it on hers too. He kept the imprint as true to her as possible, just skipping back a few years to before she went away. 

She could never know. Not until her time was up. And even then, the details would be glossed over.

He never put her imprint on her body. It would be too tempting. She might somehow remember something from those missing years. Muscle memory or something. It was a stupid thought, but he couldn't risk it. 

She was walking away, and there was something... "Oh, Whiskey. Dr. Saunders wants to see you."

"I like Dr. Saunders. He helps me be my best."

"That's good," he said, smiling.

"I try to be my best," she said solemnly.

He let himself pat her shoulder. "You are the best," he said. "You always have been."

She smiled and walked away.


End file.
